Indices trade with major gains; European mkt advance

The domestic equity indices continued to trade with substantial gains in afternoon trade. The Nifty scaled above the 24,350 mark. All the sectoral indices on NSE were in the green with auto, media and realty shares gaining the most.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex jumped 830.24 points or 1.05% to 79,716.63. The Nifty 50 index rallied 244.75 points or 1.01% to 24,361.75.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.20% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.78%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,334 shares rose and 1,497 shares fell. A total of 122 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

Eicher Motors (up 5.68%), Grasim Industries (up 3.14%), Tata Motors (up 2.86%), JSW Steel (up 2.73%) and HCL Technologies (up 2.52%) were major Nifty gainers.

Asian Paints (down 1.21%), HDFC Life Insurance Company (down 0.80%) and IndusInd Bank (down 0.23%) were major Nifty losers.

Eicher Motors jumped 5.68% after the company’s consolidated net profit jumped 19.94% to Rs 1,101.46 crore in Q1 FY25 as compared with Rs 918.34 crore posted in corresponding quarter last year. Revenue from operations increased 10.2% YoY to Rs 4,393.05 crore during the quarter.

JSW Steel advance 2.73% after the company’s consolidated crude steel production for the month of July 2024 was at 22.15 lakh tonnes, which is higher by 9% as compared with the same period last year.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) rose 0.92%. The state-run life insurer’s standalone net profit rose 9.61% to Rs 10,461.05 crore on 15.66% increase in total premium income to Rs 1,13,770.14 crore in Q1 FY25 over Q1 FY24.

Oil India rallied 4.99%. The petroleum business company reported 9.09% decline in standalone net profit to Rs 1,466.84 in Q1 FY25 as compared to Rs 1,613.43 crore posted in Q1 FY24. However, revenue from operations (excluding excise duty) jumped 17.67% to Rs 5,331.92 crore in Q1 FY25 from Rs 4531.18 crore reported in the same period a year ago.

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) slipped 4.51% after the company’s standalone net profit dropped 92.87% to Rs 10.68 crore in Q1 FY25 from Rs 149.83 crore in Q1 FY24. Revenue from operations fell 1.48% to Rs 23,997.78 crore during the quarter as compared with Rs 24,357.58 crore posted in same quarter last fiscal

Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) declined 2.40%. The company reported 5.14% increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 258.17 crore in Q1 FY25 as compared to Rs 245.56 crore posted in Q1 FY24. Revenue from operations grew by 9.38% year on year (YoY) to Rs 2,103.13 crore during the quarter ended 30 June 2024.

Global Markets:

European stocks advanced while most Asian stocks traded higher on Friday, buoyed by a strong Wall Street performance.

Investor sentiment was lifted by China's release of July consumer price index data, which showed a modest increase and eased deflation concerns. The country's consumer prices rose 0.5% year-on-year last month. However, core CPI, excluding volatile food and energy items, cooled to 0.4% from 0.6% in June.

U.S. stocks surged on Thursday after the Labor Department reported a larger-than-expected drop in initial jobless claims to 233,000 for the week ended August 3. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.76%, the S&P 500 gained 2.30% and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.87%.